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Chapter Two | Friendship Album: Forget-Me-Not

Bess wonders about the logistics of marrying Joe Mayfield and celebrates the addition of Edwina Baldwin to her household.

In this episode of Friendship Album, 1934: Forget Me Not, weddings are on everyone’s mind, especially Bess’s. As the episode begins, she and Edwina are putting on their coats and hats — Joe will be there any minute to drive them and the girls to the church for Florence’s nuptials. While Bess has to admit that things between her and Joe are getting serious, she can’t help but feel conflicted. Things in her life are finally settling down with the help of new housemate Edwina, and her late husband Bill is still very much in her thoughts.

 

 

How to listen to our private Story Guild Podcast

Paid members for the Quilt Fiction Story Guild have a number of options when it comes to listening to the novel as it is released. One option is the set up your podcast player application to receive the unique RSS link you will be provided. Most — but not all players allow these use of private links. Please find instructions below for each app.

If you use an app that isn’t supported, you always have the option of downloading a simple podcast player such as Overcast and using it exclusively to listen to the Story Guild podcast.

 

Add to Apple Podcasts (on Mac desktop and iTunes on PC)

  • Click File on the Apple Podcasts menu.

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  • Paste your unique URL into the box.

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Add to Apple Podcasts (on iOS)

  • In the icons list at the bottom of your display, click Library.

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Add to Google Podcasts (on Android)

  • In the bottom menu, click Activity.

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Add to Pocket Casts

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Add to Castbox

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Add to Overcast

  • Click the “+” icon in the top menu.

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Add to Podcast Addict

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Chapter One | Friendship Album: Forget-Me-Not

Eula gets ready for Florence’s wedding and recalls the most recent meeting of the Wednesday Bee, where opinion was divided about whether marrying Arthur is in Florence’s best interest.

Welcome back to Milton Falls and the Wednesday Quilting Bee! When last we saw our five friends–Eula, Bess, Florence, Dorothy and Emmeline–it was December 1933 and they were on the third floor of Building No. 5 admiring Emmeline’s newly repaired and newly resplendent Sears Contest quilt. Now, as we greet them anew, it’s just after New Year’s 1934. Eula is anticipating the birth of her first grandchild, and Bess has made space in her house for Edwina and space in her heart for Father Joe. Florence is getting ready for a walk down the aisle, Dorothy is getting ready to make a change and Emmeline is ready to be a national quilting celebrity as a columnist for the Farmer’s Wife. As always, there’s a lot going on in Milton Falls–and we haven’t even talked about the quilts!

 

 

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The Namesake: Dorothy, 1902. A Friendship Album Story

Hello, Friends!

As we get closer to opening the pages of Friendship Album, 1934: Forget-Me-Not, I thought it might be nice to whet your appetite with a new Friendship Album story. Today’s offering, “The Namesake,” is another Dorothy story. I hope you enjoy getting to know Dorothy as a very young mother. I also hope you’ll find it interesting to learn more about Dorothy’s family tree and life in Milton Falls back in the day, before automobiles and electricity.

Thanks as always for being a part of the Story Guild. Your support means so much to me! I wish you and your family a very happy holiday season and a very merry Christmas!

All best,

Frances

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A Friendship Album Christmas Archive Story & Pattern

When Emmeline Grangerfield sets out to make Christmas merry and bright for a group of orphans, things quickly spiral out of control. Will help arrive in time to revive her holiday spirit? It will be up to the quilters of Depression-era Milton Falls, Ohio, to find time for the true meaning of Christmas during the busiest season of the year. In this short story prequel, Frances O’Roark Dowell visits two of the five women who come together to form an improbable quilting circle in her historical novel, Friendship Album, 1933

PDF: A Friendship Album Christmas, 1932 & Pattern

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Hands All Around, Vol. 1, No. 1

In this issue of Hands All Around, writer and quilter Frances Dowell discusses how the practice of sustainable quilting makes us mindful of the past as we consider the impact of our craft on future generations. Frances O’Roark Dowell is a novelist and quilter who often writes about quilts and quiltmakers. Her books include Birds in the Air, Margaret Goes Modern and Friendship Album, 1933. She is a long-time board member of the Quilt Alliance, an organization that serves to document quilts and quilt stories.

Hands All Around, Vol. 1, No. 1 (PDF)

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Happy National Quilting Day! Quilts of the McKissick Museum

Happy National Quilting Day! I know most of us will be celebrating within the comfort of our own homes, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take a virtual tour of a wonderful quilt exhibit! Recently, my husband and son took a trip to the University of South Carolina in Columbia for a college visit. Much to my delight, they returned home with photos to the McKissick Museum, which is currently hosting the exhibit, “Piece by Piece: Quilts from the Permanent Collection.” I thought you might enjoy these quilt pix as much as I did!

From the McKissick’s description of the exhibit:

“Piece by Piece: Quilts from the Permanent Collection” illustrates the evolution of this textile tradition over the past one hundred and fifty years. From the early use of chintz fabrics to the widespread popularity of solid colors, these quilts reflect traditions with roots in Europe, Africa, and the American South. Visitors will have the opportunity to view 40+ quilts over the course of the show, chosen from McKissick Museum’s extensive quilt collection. Due to the fragile nature of historic textiles, individual quilts will be only be displayed for a limited time, with three rotations occurring throughout the year.

Established in 1976, the McKissick Museum is located at the heart of the historic Horseshoe on the University of South Carolina’s campus. Our collections date back to 1801 and provide insight into the history of the university and the community, culture, and environment of the American South.

Enjoy the quilts! P.S. To stay up-to-date on all of our news here at Quiltfiction, including new podcast episodes and special events, be sure to sign up for the Quiltfiction newsletter!

Barn Raising Log Cabin
Maker Unknown
Eastern Pennsylvania, ca. 1880-1910
Gift of Stephen H. Ackerman
This variation of the traditional log cabin block uses light and dark “logs” to frame a red square, which represent’s the home’s hearth. (McKissick Museum Collection 1998.09.112.02)

Crazy Quilt
Eva Lovelace Counts (1878-1942)
Prosperity, SC. 1926
McKissick Museum Collection

Figurative Applique, Original Pattern
Maker Unknown
Southeast. Ca. 1950
The block-style quilt features 20 0ff-white, black and brown female figures with outstretched arms. It appears the maker of this quilt may have adapted a paper doll pattern for her original design. The figures on some blocks are entirely machine pieced; other have machine-pieced bodies with hand appliquéd heads, suggesting perhaps more than one person worked on the quilt. It is hand-quilted in a clam shell pattern. (McKissick Museum Collection 2001.11.XX.01)

String Quilt
Anna Byrd (1910-unk.)
Spartanburg, SC. ca. 1930
Anna was born in Fairfield County, SC. She married James Byrd in 1925 and they had six children. The donor of this quilt was their oldest son, John W. Byrd. The African American maker of this quilt was especially skilled at juxtaposing light and dark fabric “strings” to great visual effect, which she quilted in long running stitches, with no definite design. (McKissick Museum Collection 2012.05.01)

Pinwheel Variation
Caroline Mahaffey Babb (1874-1947)
Fountain Inn, SC. ca. 1900
Gift of Gloria Burnside
Red, white and blue 3-patch design with distinctive sawtooth border. Neatly hand-stitched Pinwheel pattern, also called Clay’s Choice. When Nancy Cabot introduced this quilt pattern to Chicago Tribune readers in April 1933, she noted Henry Clay’s efforts in 1850 to introduce a compromise bill that would forestall the Civil War. (McKissick Museum Collection 2012.05.01)

Rectangle Quilt
Thomas Mack, Beaufort County, SC. 1999
Machine-sewn of rectangular, alternating pieces of burlap and handmade indigo prints made by Arianne King Comer. Burlap is from Idaho potato bags. (McKissick Museum Collection 1999.23.11.01)

Double Irish Chain
Maker Unknown, Chattooga County, Georgia, ca. 1880
Gift of Sarah M. Norton
McKissick Museum Collection 6.1804

Coxcomb Variation
Sarah Edith Coleman Colvin (1856-1930)
Fairfield County, SC. ca. 1880
Gift of Edith E. Adams in memory of Mary Colvin Adams and Eva Colvin
In what at first appears to be a traditional block-style, appliquéd, two-colored quilt, Colvin instead appliquéd the hand-pieced “coxcombs” onto muslin and then machine-quilted the background in a crisscross, diamond pattern. (McKissick Museum Collection 2001-03-138-02)

Outline Embroidered Quilt
Maker Unknown
South Carolina, ca. 1910
Single-colored, outline-embroidered quilts created from square that had been pre-stamped with a design were popular with needleworkers from 1910-1930. (McKissick Museum Collection 2013.11.100)